The Charleston Golden Eagles, known previously as the Morris Harvey Golden Eagles, are the athletic teams that represent the

University of Charleston The University of Charleston (UC) is a private university with its main campus in Charleston, West Virginia. It also has a location in Beckley, West Virginia, known as UC-Beckley. History The school was founded in 1888 as the Barboursville Semin ...

, located in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in West Virginia, most populous city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Kanawha County, West Virginia, Kanawha County and ...

, in

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...

intercollegiate sports. The Golden Eagles compete as members of the

Mountain East Conference The Mountain East Conference (MEC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level and officially began competition on September 1, 2013. It consists of 11 schools, m ...

for all varsity sports except men's volleyball. Charleston was a founding member of the Mountain East following the 2013 demise of the

West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) was a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which historically operated exclusively in the state of West Virginia, but briefly had one Kentucky member in its early y ...

, of which Charleston had been a member since 1924. Prior to 1978, the university was called Morris Harvey College. Charleston's main rivals are the

West Virginia State University West Virginia State University (WVSU) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, land-grant university in Institute, West Virginia, United States. Founded in 1891 as the West Virginia Color ...

Yellow Jackets Yellowjacket or yellowjacket is the common name in North America for predatory social wasps of the genera ''Vespula'' and ''Dolichovespula''. Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English-speaking countries. Most of these ...

History

In June 2012, UC was one of nine members of the

(WVIAC) that announced their plans to leave to form a new Division II conference. Two months later, the new conference was unveiled as the MEC, with UC as one of 12 charter members. The school's newest sport is men's volleyball, which played its first season as a varsity program in spring 2015. Since men's volleyball has a combined national championship for Division I and Division II schools, UC competes as an effective Division I member in that sport; it spent its first season as an independent before joining the

Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association The Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) is a college athletic conference whose member schools compete in men's volleyball. Its member institutions are located in the Northeast United States. The EIVA Tournament champion receives ...

for the 2016 season and beyond. In 2005, UC entered into a partnership with the local school board to refurbish the school board–owned

Laidley Field The University of Charleston Stadium at Laidley Field is an 18,500-capacity stadium located in downtown Charleston, West Virginia, near the West Virginia State Capitol complex. It features a FieldTurf playing field for football and facilities for ...

, which was renamed University of Charleston Stadium. The campus also boasts new or renovated softball, football, baseball, and soccer fields, and competes in 18 Division II sports.

History

Varsity teams

National championships

Team

References

External links